


Hush, now

by wearethewitches



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/F, F/M, Feels, Grandparents & Grandchildren, One Shot, POV River Song, River Song Appreciation Day, River Song is Saved, library feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:40:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24478870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wearethewitches/pseuds/wearethewitches
Summary: “Heather! I’m stuck, come on, girl – I need a pick-up!”“The Maze doesn’t allow for instant transportation. Teleport, dematerialisation, whatever form of travel you use – it won’t work here.”or, River Song and Bill Potts meet in a labyrinth.-for River Song Appreciation Day
Relationships: Heather (Doctor Who: The Pilot)/Bill Potts, The Doctor/River Song
Comments: 7
Kudos: 45





	Hush, now

She pops her head around a corner, glasses scanning for any traps.

 _Hm,_ the archaeologist thinks at the sight of a young woman standing in the middle of a corridor, shimmering like water and then returning to her humanoid form with a stamp of her foot. _Unusual, but not a trap._

“Heather! I’m stuck, come on, girl – I need a pick-up!” Shouts the woman, poking her eye hard enough she swears. River Song is amazed to hear 21st Century English and raises her eyebrow sharply as the girl carefully takes her tears and holds them out to open air. Whatever she clearly expects to happen, does not happen. And then the sudden pitiful expression on her face ignites River’s inherited hero complex, damn her.

 _Stars, I really am in trouble today,_ River huffs, stepping out from behind her corner, tucking her gun into her holster as she strides forwards, propping her scanner-sunglasses on top of her head. “The Maze doesn’t allow for instant transportation. Teleport, dematerialisation, whatever form of travel you use – it won’t work here.”

The woman startles, wide-eyed as she looks to River. Somehow, her eyes get even wider. “I know you!”

River stops, dust swirling where her feet grind to a halt. “You know me?”

“Yeah!” She cries, pointing. “There’s a picture of you on my tutor’s desk!”

“Your… _tutor,_ ” River repeats, idly wondering whether she knows who this supposed ‘tutor’ is. “When would this be? And what planet?”

“Earth,” she replies immediately, “Bristol, two thousand and seventeen. St. Luke’s University – I used to serve chips.”

“How lovely,” says River, circling the girl and noting the – now that she mentions it – _obviously_ 21st Century Earth clothing, the rainbow pin on her high-waisted jeans bringing a fleeting smile to her face. River herself wishes she could pull off such bright colours, but muted shades have always been her best friend, unless she was going to the Neon Club on Luna. “And who would you be?”

“I’m-” and the woman stops, mouth clamping shut.

River chuckles, holding out her hand. “Professor River Song.”

The woman warily shakes, lips twisting into a frown. “Bill. I’m not sure…I mean, when I knew him, you were, uh…”

A flutter in her hearts. “After Darillium.” She remembers the orange sky, turned red in the dark of the twenty-four years long night. “Old man, hair that needs touched up _desperately_ , likes to disappear into a blue box?”

Bill’s frown turns into the widest of grins. “The Doctor in the TARDIS.”

“The Doctor in the TARDIS,” River says, melancholy. Taking back her hand after one last squeeze, motioning around with a wave. “So, what brings you to the Labyrinth of Moon Forty-Five? I don’t suppose you know the way out.”

“Or through,” she mutters, before saying louder, “I thought it was an attraction, like out of a theme park or something. Didn’t realise it’s a religious rite.”

River laughs. “Only if you want to dedicate yourself! Explorers like me simply try to map it and find the temple at the end of the road. I’ve been here for a week.” She doesn’t admit that it’s the fifth time in her life that she’s tried to reach the centre, frustrated that she’s never managed to get close. Bringing out her notebook, she flips through the various maps she’s drawn. “I’m close, I think, but there are perception filters and all sorts of nasty defences.”

“Defences?” Bill raises an eyebrow. “What kind of defences?”

“Oh, the usual sort. Poison gas, shrinking corridors, psychic attack robots-” River lists them off, only noticing Bill’s sceptical expression when she’s ran out of fingers and toes to count them on. Wary, she narrows her eyes. “What?”

“Well…” Bill fidgets, “Maybe not everywhere is trapped?”

“Everywhere is trapped.” River’s voice is flat. Again, she notices the clothes – clean and certainly not in as bad a condition as her own.

“No, it’s really not,” says Bill, who points back the way she came. “At least, the way I came in wasn’t. The one time I thought I saw a swamp, but then a wall came out of nowhere and cut me off.”

_What?_

“What?” River repeats out loud, staring at her in amazement. “The Maze changed to stop you?”

“…I mean… _yeah?”_

In an instant, a plan forms in River’s mind. Grinning, she loops arms with the other woman, noticing that they’re the same height, give or take a few inches from her heels.

“Well, then, let’s see how the Maze reacts when the both of us have a wander, shall we?”

Bill swallows loudly, voice high-pitched as River drags them forwards. “Yeah! Let’s go!”

* * *

As expected, the Maze is empty of all traps, defences and sticky situations when River travels with Bill. The young woman natters on about her adventures with the Doctor, after a few prods, complete with fantastic rave about how wild and random the Doctor’s lectures used to be.

“-and there was one time, he spoke about oxygen and I think he was supposed to be doing something on farming, but then we went to this space station and he went blind-”

“Blind?”

“Yeah,” says Bill, a mixture of anger and upset prevalent. “The nutter didn’t tell me for _weeks_. I hated it. He’s- he’s like my granddad. Actually, he pretended to _be_ my granddad one time, thought he looked young enough to be my father, but I was like, _no, definitely not._ ”

River laughs at that, looping their arms even tighter. “I guess that makes me your grandmother. I’ve never had a granddaughter, before.”

Bill jerks. “What?”

Sighing, River says to Bill, “I’m the Doctor’s wife, Bill. Who did you think I was?”

The gulp is audible. “You don’t want to know.”

Side-eyeing her newly-adopted granddaughter, River says wryly, “Perhaps, I don’t.”

Bill, clearly squirming, looks forwards and points, aiming to distract her. “What’s that?”

 _She probably thought I was his daughter or something banal like that…_ but River humours her, looking forwards, certainly not expecting to see a door. _There’s never been a door before._

Wide and grey, with red blinking lights, two obvious deadlocks, two optical scanners on either side and a plain knob handle, River suspects they’ve reached the legendary centre of the Maze upon seeing the door. Frankly, the fact that Bill got her here in the space of twenty minutes without nary an obstacle is miraculous and highly suspect.

“That looks like the Vault,” Bill blurts out.

“I beg your pardon?” River enunciates, having no idea what Bill is referring to.

“Missy’s prison,” says the former-companion, staring. “The Doctor built it for her. He had to guard her for a thousand years, rehabilitate her and all this shit that never happened. There was this one- one time and Nardole and I thought it was…” she trails off and River can feel her pulse increase dramatically.

Ignoring who ‘Missy’ could be – for the Doctor would never volunteer to guard someone for a full thousand years unless they were very, _very_ close – River turns Bill’s chin so she can look into her eyes. They’re out of focus, glazed.

“Bill, come back to me, please,” River requests, putting only the faintest strain of demand in her voice. Luckily, it seems that Bill’s well-adjusted enough, despite whatever trauma she’s been through, that she returns to her without trouble. “Do you think the Doctor was involved in the creation of the Maze?” she asks.

Swallowing, Bill glances back at the door, nodding. “Yeah,” she breathes out, shaky. “Yeah, makes sense, right? It’s just like him to make a puzzle like this. I travelled with him – that has to be why the Maze didn’t attack me, right?”

“I suspect so,” River says, releasing her chin and arm so she can stride forwards, sliding her scanner-sunglasses back on. She was right to think there were two deadlocks. She was also right to think there were two optical scanners.

She didn’t quite expect there to be a message waiting for them.

**_COMPANIONS ONLY, NO SPOUSES ALLOWED._ **

“That cheeky bastard,” River mutters, handing Bill her glasses when she joins her side. Bill’s laugh is startled and amused. River snatches her glasses back, approaching cockily. “If you’ve got any sentient defences up and running, they’d better turn off _right_ now,” she warns threateningly, convinced that the Doctor created the Maze just to piss her off.

“You go on that side,” she instructs Bill, who pops into place willingly in front of the optical scanner River’s pointing at. Copying her, the two look into the scanners – one blinking green and the other, red.

Her hand itches to grab her blaster.

Illuminated by green, Bill purses her lips momentarily, saying, “Perhaps he really means it. I wish Heather were here, then she-”

“I’m here.”

Hand _actually_ going for her blaster, River has it halfway out of her holster before realising that Bill is grinning, kissing the pretty blonde woman – who looks half-drowned, anathema to their dusty surroundings – who had appeared from nowhere. When the woman looks her way, she smiles, going from half-drowned to perfectly dry in an instant, holding her hand out.

“A pleasure to meet you, River Song. I’m the Pilot – my name is Heather Potts.”

“Oh my god, _Heather Potts,_ ” Bill whispers to herself excitedly, fanning her face. “I’m never going to get used to that!”

Heather chuckles quietly, eyelashes fluttering as she says to Bill genuinely, “I hope you do. Then you might stop accidentally calling me your girlfriend.”

Putting her gun away, River shakes. “Bill mentioned you,” and it really was only a mention or two, as their conversation was more focused on River’s wayward husband. From Bill’s expression of gleeful contentment, River guesses that Heather is as important to Bill as the Doctor is to River.

Not to mention the ‘girlfriend’ thing. River guesses it’s more of a ‘wife’ thing.

“Let me,” Heather says to her, slipping in front of her, the optical scanner flashing green a moment later. Almost immediately, the deadlocks disengage and the doors slide open – revealing a silver door that matches the handle, which hasn’t moved at all.

“A key?” Bill scrunches her nose up.

River has an idea. “Did the Doctor ever give you a key to the TARDIS?”

“…no? Why would he?” Frowning at her, Bill crosses her arms. “Does he normally?”

“In recent years, yes,” says River, a bit upset on her behalf, to be honest. From a hidden space in her vortex manipulator, she untucks her own copy, using it to unlock the knob. She turns it, opening the door…

Only to be met with the TARDIS itself.

 _“Oh,”_ River breathes, not recognising the fine details of the outer casing, but knowing her all the same. Running her hands down the dark windows to the silver handle, River lets herself in, the TARDIS always having been open to her. The inside console is shadowed, but when she steps inside, Bill and Heather at her back, lights bloom in the dark, pale orange steps showing them the way.

Trying to see in the gloom outside the path is impossible, so River follows the steps until she reaches the console, staring at the panels without controls, metres or dials. The flat panes are blank and when she runs her hand along the edge, dust forms.

Heart pained, River – for a single, horrible moment – wonders if this is her mother at the end of her days. Quiet, asleep. Then, a hologram appears to her left of a dark-skinned man in small, wire-rimmed spectacles and a suit. He smiles at the sight of her.

“River Song. If this message activates, you have found your way to the centre of the Maze,” he says, looking only to her. “Or rather, the TARDIS. The Maze is an outer shell, inspired by Clara Oswald and the Lady Me’s diner façade. I am sorry, my darling, that it took you so long to figure out the truth: that only one in the presence of my former companions could ever navigate and unlock the doors to the TARDIS console room.”

“Doctor?” asks Bill, confused.

“He’s just a hologram,” says River, waiting for the Doctor to continue. The TARDIS was clever – she had him pause while they spoke. She’d expect nothing less.

Breathing in slowly, the Doctor’s hologram smiles. “I have moved on, Professor. Secrets have come to light, not so many years from after that famous night in Darillium of ours and I have discovered a truth: that I am no Gallifreyan, though a Time Lord I might be. My body will forever live on – a curse of my true species. I decided to begin again, though for the sake of many, my mind has been preserved as it was to me, in this form, in the bowels of…” and he trails off, smiling as he whispers, “-a _library._ Do not seek me, for you shall always find me in the end. I love you, deeply and most sincerely, River Song and I always will.”

Gasping, River says, “No, you can’t.”

“But I must,” he replies, like he’s _actually here._ His smile turns into a more neutral expression as he says, “and you must go, now. There are things waiting for you, just as there are for the me that still goes on, beginning again with naught in their head but a promise to be kind and never, ever cowardly. I have learnt through introspection that cruelty has oft been a trait of mine never addressed. Nevertheless, I need a moment of time with the two companions who opened the doors for you. In private.”

“Is this the end? Nothing more for you to say?” River asks, desperate and heartbroken to hear that this is where her beloved ends.

The Doctor smiles at her, eyes twinkling. “I told you, Professor. This is not the end – for either of us. When you’re ready to know that, ask Charlotte to speak to her firewall. It’s sentient, you see.”

 _Charlotte? Sentient firewalls?_ “I don’t understand.”

“You will,” he says. “Use your usual greeting and it will activate a subroutine. You’ll see. I promise.” His eyes burn into hers. “Do you trust me?”

“Always,” she swears. “Forever.”

“Then let me talk to Bill and Heather,” the Doctor says. “Alone. This is not a goodbye, only a beginning, darling-mine.”

“I trust you.” Her breath hitches and River turns away without another word, Bill and Heather shuffling out of her way so she can walk back to the doors of the TARDIS. Every step weighs a thousand tonnes.

And when she’s outside, River is faced with the Maze again. It gleams in the sun, cleaner than before and louder, as if to block out any of the whispers she might hear through the open doors.

Eventually, Bill and Heather exit the TARDIS. Determination is set in their expressions, like a responsibility has been set upon their shoulders that they are happy to bear, their hands and fingers entwined tightly.

“We’ve got to go, now,” Bill informs her, steadfast. “Things to do.”

“Places to go – where only we can go,” says Heather, smiling at her.

Solemn, River nods, asking them, “Is he waiting or is he gone?”

“Waiting.” Bill grins without warning. “Go on, Gran. Grandfather’s waiting.”

“Grand _mother,_ thank-you,” her nose wrinkles at being called _gran._ “Much more elegant.”

“Grandmother, then,” the woman rolls her eyes, reaching with one arm to wrap River in a hug. Delighted at the surprise, River hugs her back, for a blissful moment imagining what her daughter would have looked like – maybe like Bill herself, considering Mels’ complexion. It’s easy to imagine this wonderful woman as a granddaughter and River will treasure this relationship – and hopefully, when she gets back from her trip to the Library with the Lux Corporation, River can seek her out again.

 _Yes,_ she decides, pressing a brief kiss to Bill’s forehead before retreating, tugging gently on a wayward corkscrew curl. _I’ll see her again._

“You girls get out of here and do what the Doctor asked,” River orders, far more agreeable than before. She bops Heather on the nose, pointing to Bill. “Don’t let this one get lost in another place she can’t escape.”

Beaming, Heather nods. “Of course. As long as she doesn’t piss me off.”

“Oh, of course! Bad behaviour equals punishment,” River says in mirth. “Now, _go_.”

Bill and Heather look to each other, so in love, before they turn into shimmering bubbles of water, disappearing into the sky in a blink of an eye. Looking up at the blue sky contentedly, River smiles, before walking back into the TARDIS, where the Doctor stands as a hologram.

“I’ll see you again, my love?” She can’t help but question.

“I promise,” he repeats. The Doctor puts a hand to his chest – wedding ring shining brightly. It’s the same one, River knows. “And,” he adds, smile suddenly turning mischievous, “it’ll be forever.”

“Forever?” River laughs, happy enough not to care that it’s impossible. “I see. Well, if it is to be forever, then at least I know you look _fine,_ husband-mine.”

“Thank-you,” he says, appreciative. They stare at each other for the longest time and then…then River turns to go. “I love you,” the Doctor says after her and River can’t help it as she calls out.

“I know!”

And so she leaves, turning at the last moment as she shuts the doors, already going through the motion of closing them. It’s something she’s always done – got that last look just after the Doctor turns his head. So, River isn’t expecting to see anything more than the disappearance of a hologram – and is pleasantly shocked to see another form into being, swinging the Doctor around into their arms, like they’re dancing.

The Doctor smiles at her, for he is no mere hologram, murmuring, _“Hello, sweetie.”_

And the TARDIS doors close, leaving River outside, knowing that she is well and truly loved – even as a ghost.

**Author's Note:**

> And then, River Song went to the Library, died and woke up in the data core of Charlotte Abigail Lux. It took her many years before she gained the courage to ask Charlotte if she could meet her firewall and when that little girl summoned Doctor Moon, the sight of him took her breath away.
> 
> Because it was him. The Doctor.
> 
> The Doctor without a ring. The Doctor who didn't know who she was, not until she breathed the words _hello sweetie_ and his whole being flickered. For a moment, the Moon up in the sky went dark and Charlotte screamed in confusion - but then it rebooted and it shone like a sun.
> 
> And Doctor Moon reappeared with a ring on his finger and a smile on his lips.
> 
> "Hello, darling-mine."


End file.
